
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240702
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GAINSBORO ROAD CHANGES ASKED/ TROUT ASKS MORE, BETTER LANDSCAPING TO EASE

In an effort to help preserve the residential character of Gainsboro, City Councilman James Trout has proposed that more trees and landscaping be added to a section of a proposed four-lane road through the neighborhood.

Trout said today he thinks the engineers who are designing the road should work with neighborhood representatives to ease their concerns.

At a public hearing earlier this week, several speakers said the road appears to have been designed mainly for improved access to downtown without consideration of its impact on Gainsboro and Our Lady of the Valley retirement center on North Jefferson Street.

"I think we ought to use the same approach that we did with the Old Southwest neighborhood on the Franklin Road widening project," Trout said.

In Old Southwest, city officials and highway engineers worked with residents to add more landscaping and make other changes in the design to help preserve a residential atmosphere.

"Let's take one more trip through the [Gainsboro] neighborhood and see if we can make some changes to help preserve the residential atmosphere," Trout said.

The $9.5 million project will involve the construction of a four-lane highway for three-quarters of a mile in the Second Street and Gainsboro Road corridor. It will tie into Gainsboro Road near Harrison Avenue.

Robert McNichols, management agent for Our Lady of the Valley, said the "human and pedestrian scale" of the proposed highway has been overlooked.

The road, which is projected to have a daily traffic count of 20,000 vehicles within 20 years, would change Gainsboro's residential character and isolate part of the neighborhood, McNichols said

Trout, who has been an advocate of the new road to help provide a new access to downtown, said he thinks some changes can be made to "tone it down a little in the vicinity of the retirement center and Gainsboro branch library."

A.L. Holland, speaking for the Gainsboro neighborhood organization, said "we've been working for years trying to complete the Gainsboro redevelopment project and I hope this doesn't hinder it."

The highway will provide a north-south corridor for access to downtown between Orange Avenue and Salem Avenue. It is designed in part to replace the north-south corridor that was eliminated by the recent closing of the Jefferson Street leg of the viaduct.

The viaduct leg has been razed to provide a site for the 20-story Dominion Tower at Jefferson Street and Salem Avenue.

The proposed bridge over the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks at the Second Street railroad crossing will be 636 feet long - more than twice the length of a football field - and cover most of the distance between Salem Avenue and Loudon Avenue. It will span Shenandoah Avenue and the entrance to the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Roanoke.

The schedule calls for construction on the project to begin late this year and be finished by Jan. 1, 1992.

The new road will be part of a proposed inner loop for downtown traffic. The loop follow mostly existing streets. It will include Wells Avenue, Gainsboro Road, the new bridge, Second Street, Franklin Road and Williamson Road.

by CNB